Agreement holder's guide: Mid Tier and Wildlife Offers applications from 1 January 2023

Question 1

6 Scheme  requirements and procedures

Accepted Answer

You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section, as these are mandatory if you have a Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier agreement, including the Wildlife Offers.

6.1 Entering into an agreement

If your application is successful, we will send you an agreement offer, by post or email (if you applied with an application pack) or via the Rural Payments portal (if you applied online). If you want to accept the agreement, return the signed acceptance declaration to us within 20 working days of the date on the offer.

All Mid Tier agreements start on 1 January 2023. For capital items you should not undertake work or incur costs before you have accepted your agreement offer, even if these form part of your agreement. The agreement must not include any work that has already been carried out or any financial commitment already made before 1 January 2023. If it does, the agreement may be terminated.

If you are successful in securing a place in one of the environmental land management schemes, you can terminate your Countryside Stewardship agreement early without penalty, at the end of an agreement year, so you can participate in the new environmental land management schemes.

6.1.1 Entering and ending an agreement: Option delivery and relationship to the cropping cycle

You do not need to destroy crops which are in the ground at the start of an agreement (1 January) to establish a chosen option - you can manage and harvest them as normal farm crops.

However, some options may have restrictions on their management from 1 January 2023. For example, the option may require that you do not use any fertiliser, pesticide sprays or other inputs. This will be detailed in your agreement.

Agreement options may involve work that can only take place at certain times of the year or under certain conditions, for example fencing to permit grazing, or creating beetle banks and nesting plots for lapwing. In these cases, you must complete the work and meet any option requirements during the first 12 months of the agreement.

Some options such as basic overwintered stubble (AB2) advise that the stubble be kept until 15 February in the year after it was established. However, it only needs to be retained until 31 December in the last year of the agreement.

6.2 General scheme requirements

‘Agreement Holder’ means the person (whether an individual, a company or other entity) who has entered into the Countryside Stewardship agreement as identified in the Agreement Document – read clause 1 of the Terms and Conditions.

You must deliver your capital item(s) and/or the Multi-Year Option(s) in accordance with the standards and requirements set out in your Agreement Document and this Manual (including any relevant time limits) and in the agreed location(s) as identified on the Agreement Map(s).

‘Agreement Land’ is the land parcels defined in the Agreement Document and identified on the Agreement Map(s), and any land parcels where rotational options are active in a particular year, as defined in clause 1 of the Terms and Conditions.

You, as the Agreement Holder, must follow all the general management requirements as set out below, on the Agreement Land throughout the period of the agreement unless:

specifically stated otherwise in another section of this manual
specifically permitted in the recommended management of the option as part of the Countryside Stewardship Agreement Document, or
specifically required for organic management.

6.2.1 General management requirements

You must not:

allow Agreement Land to be levelled, infilled, or used for the storage or dumping of materials
light fires (including burning brash or cuttings) on the Agreement Land
allow field operations or stocking to cause any ground disturbance, wheel rutting, poaching or compaction on Agreement Land.

You can use Agreement Land to store muck heaps temporarily if you can continue to meet all the requirements in your agreement that apply to the area concerned.

6.2.2 Protecting historic features

These requirements apply to any features marked on the FER map and HEFER, and also to any additional features that we later write to tell you about.

You must not do any of the following:

cause ground disturbance, including poaching by livestock, on known archaeological features or areas of historic interest under grassland, unless the ground disturbance is part of a programme of works intended to protect the historical or archeological feature.
sub-soil or de-stone on areas containing known archaeological features, unless these operations have been carried out as part of a routine in the past 5 years. You must have Scheduled Monument Consent from the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as advised by Historic England, to carry out sub-soiling on Scheduled Monuments.
deliberately plough more deeply or undertake additional ground works or drainage on those areas already under cultivation that contain known archaeological features.
allow free-range pigs on archaeological features.
remove any useable building stone, walling stone or traditional roofing material (excluding materials produced from established quarries) from known archaeological features or areas of historic interest on the Agreement Land.
damage, demolish or remove building material from substantially complete ruined traditional farm buildings, from historic boundaries or from boundaries of parcels containing known archaeological features or areas of historic interest.

6.2.3 Hedgerows

In any one calendar year, you must not cut more than 50% of all hedges on or bordering Agreement Land. This includes all parcels under agreement, including land parcels which have been selected for rotational options but where rotational options are not sited during that year.

There is an exception for public safety, allowing road and trackside hedgerows to be cut annually or more frequently.

You must mark all hedges on or bordering Agreement Land on the FER map. You can find detailed guidance on the relevant hedges, and how to mark them on the FER map, with the application pack, or in the How to apply online for Mid Tier guidance.

6.2.4 Grazing management

The following table lists Mid Tier multi-year management options which limit grazing activity.

Table of Mid Tier multi-year options where average stocking densities apply

Option code	Title
AB1	Nectar Flower mix
AB6	Enhanced overwinter stubble
AB7	Whole crop cereals
BE4	Management of traditional orchards
GS1	Take field corners out of management
GS3	Ryegrass seed-set as winter food for birds
GS4	Legume and herb-rich swards
GS6	Management of species-rich grassland
GS9	Management of wet grassland for breeding waders
GS10	Management of wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl
GS15	Haymaking supplement
GS17	Lenient grazing supplement
OP1	Overwintered stubble
SW3	In-field grass strips
SW4	12 metres to 24 metres watercourse or nitrogen sensitive terrestrial habitat buffer strips on cultivated land
SW7	Arable reversion to grassland with low fertiliser input
SW8	Management of intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse
SW9	Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland
SW10	Seasonal livestock removal on grassland in Severely Disadvantaged Areas on land next to streams, rivers and lakes
UP1	Enclosed rough grazing
UP2	Management of rough grazing for birds
WD4	Management of lowland wood pasture and parkland
WD7	Management of successional areas and scrub
WD9	Livestock exclusion supplement - scrub and successional areas
WD10	Management of upland wood pasture and parkland

If the agreement contains one or more of these options, you must meet the following requirements.

Avoid over-grazing and under-grazing across the whole grazed area of the holding. Distribute stock across the grazed area of the holding to make sure this is the case
Stock no more than 2.0 Livestock Units (LU) / ha on Severely Disadvantaged Area (SDA) land, or 2.5 LU / ha on non-SDA land, on average over the year across all agricultural land on the farm or production unit where the agreement is located.

Under-grazing is where annual growth is not fully used, or where scrub or coarse vegetation is becoming evident, and this is damaging the environment of the site.

Over-grazing is where land is grazed by so many livestock that the growth, quality or diversity of vegetation is adversely affected, and this is detrimental to the environmental interests of the site.

Read Annex 6 for more information about what you need to include in your records, how to convert livestock numbers to livestock units and what to do when you take over additional land.

6.2.5 Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

If your Agreement Land is in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ), you must meet the requirements of both the relevant NVZ Action Programme and Countryside Stewardship. Where the rules overlap, you must meet those that are the strictest.

6.2.6 Farming Rules for Water

As part of this agreement, you must meet the requirements of the Farming Rules for Water on GOV.UK.

6.2.7 Maintaining capital items

You must maintain capital items funded under Countryside Stewardship on Agreement Land, in the condition and to the specification for which they were granted aid, for a set period of time.

For capital works which form part of a multi-year agreement or part of a stand-alone capital agreement, this obligation will last for 5 years from the agreement start date.

We may recover payments if you do not meet these requirements, or if your Agreement Land that the capital item is located on is taken out of the scheme before the end of the agreement.

6.2.8 Heather and grass burning

Where you have the legal right to carry out burning, and intend to do so, you must comply with all relevant legislation, which includes the Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2007 and the Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021. You can find details of the requirements and information on when to apply for a licence at Heather and grass burning: rules and applying for a licence on GOV.UK.

You must also follow the Heather and Grass Burning Code (as may be amended).

If heather or grass burning is included in your Countryside Stewardship application, your Natural England adviser will discuss a restoration plan with you.

6.3 Cross Compliance: requirements

These requirements are updated annually and apply to that calendar year, regardless of when a Countryside Stewardship agreement started.

Cross compliance is a set of rules which applies to all farmers and land managers receiving payments from the Basic Payment Scheme, Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier or Higher Tier, Environmental Stewardship and other land based multi-annual schemes such as the England Woodland Grant Scheme.

Cross compliance requires you, as an Agreement Holder, to:

maintain your land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) by meeting a range of standards that relate to water, the protection of soil and carbon stock, and landscape features, and
meet a range of Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs)
relating to the environment, public and plant health, animal health and welfare, and livestock identification and tracing.

You must meet the cross compliance requirements across your whole holding for the whole calendar year, whether or not it is Agreement Land. For cross compliance purposes, a holding is all the production units and areas managed by you, as the Agreement Holder, situated within the UK. This includes land which is:

used for agricultural activities
used for forestry
other non-agricultural land (for example salt marsh) for which Rural Development payments for the schemes listed above are claimed, and
land declared for the Basic Payment Scheme (whether BPS is claimed on that land or not).

This is only a summary of the cross compliance requirements. You can find full details about the requirements that you must follow in the latest version of ‘The Guide to Cross Compliance in England’ on GOV.UK. We will publish any changes to the requirements and any replacement for cross compliance on GOV.UK.

6.4 Evidence: Record keeping and site visit requirements

You must obtain and keep evidence to show you have carried out all the requirements of your agreement to support your claim or to support a site visit. You must also keep evidence that you are eligible for the scheme.

You must keep evidence to show that:

you are eligible for the scheme
capital works have been carried out to the required specification.

If we select you for a site visit, we’ll check that you are meeting the aims of the management options. We may also check some specific areas, for example your use of fertilisers and/or pesticides, seed mixes, or stocking levels on land.

If we can see that you have met the aims of management options, we’ll not ask you to provide additional evidence to show this.

If there is uncertainty about whether or not the aims of the options have been delivered, we will take into account any records or evidence you may have kept to demonstrate delivery of the aims of the option. This includes any steps you’ve taken to follow the recommended management set out in ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK.

For this reason, we strongly encourage you to keep appropriate records, as it is an important part of an effective farm, or woodland management system. We recommend that you obtain and keep evidence to show you have followed the recommended management of your agreement, to support your claim or provide during a site visit.

Records will help demonstrate that you have carried out the activities in your agreement and that the funded activity is taking or has taken place. It also helps demonstrate that public money is being spent effectively and is delivering the intended results.

It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on these to support your claim.

For capital items, you must follow the requirements for the specific item, including any specifications you need to adhere to and retain any records that are required to support your claim.

6.4.1 When is evidence required?

You must keep any required evidence and supporting documents and have them available on request.

You can find a list of evidence requirements for individual options and capital items at ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK. These records should demonstrate that you have done the required work. If you cannot provide evidence when asked, or the evidence you do provide is inaccurate or incomplete, we will treat this as a breach of your agreement and may apply reductions (read Section 7.4).

Evidence to support your application

You must keep evidence to show that you, your business, your land, multi-year management options or capital items are eligible, as you may have to show this if you are chosen for a site visit.

During the agreement period

You may need to provide evidence to show that you have carried out the required actions. Evidence may be needed:

to support a claim, in particular capital item claims. More information is set out in Section 7.2 and where relevant, further information will be sent with the claim form covering letter
during or after a site visit, for our administrative checks or other checks as described in Section 7.4.

After the agreement has ended

The Terms and Conditions explain you must keep all invoices, receipts, accounts and any other relevant documentation relating to the expenditure of the grant for at least 7 years from the end of the agreement.

6.4.2 Consents and permissions

It is your responsibility to get all consents, approvals or permissions that you may need due to your specific circumstances and to carry out the particular multi-year option or capital item (read Section 4.8). These consents and permissions must remain effective, and records kept, for the duration of the agreement.

6.4.3 Organic certification

You must meet the organic standards on all your organic land for the entire duration of the organic option(s) in the agreement and keep records as evidence of organic farming practices.

This is an eligibility requirement and failure to comply could result in a breach of your agreement. This means a reduction may be applied or, in certain cases, this could lead to your agreement being terminated.

Record keeping requirements differ depending on whether land is certified as ‘organic’ or ‘in-conversion’. The organic schedule and certificate supplied by the Defra-approved Organic Certification Body (OCB) are legal proof of registration and provide verifiable evidence of the land status as ‘in-conversion’, or ‘fully organic’.

The evidence you need for organic support under Countryside Stewardship is listed below. The evidence must cover all land and enterprises entered for ongoing support under Countryside Stewardship organic options.

Fully organic

You must keep the following and have them available on request if we ask to see them:

a valid organic certificate and schedule issued by a Defra approved OCB
annual OCB site visit reports
evidence of continued OCB registration.

Organic Conversion payments

You must keep the following and have them available on request if we ask to see them:

your Conversion Plan, approved by the OCB
a valid organic certificate and schedule.

New conversion

If you have not yet had an initial site visit and completed an OCB-approved conversion plan for the land in question yet (due to timing of conversion), you must have the following documents available on request if we ask to see them:

a fully completed Organic Viability Plan available on GOV.UK
a completed conversion plan approved by the OCB as well as a valid organic certificate and schedule.

6.4.4 Photographic evidence

For some multi-year management options and capital items, you need to keep dated photographic evidence. You must have this evidence available on request as we may ask to see it. You can use photographs with an automatic date stamp, or write the date the photograph was taken on the reverse.

The need for dated photographic evidence depends on the multi-year management option or capital item. Check the individual option or capital item requirements using ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK.

For photographic evidence the following general principles apply.

Before work stage

For some multi-year options and capital items you need to take dated photographs and keep them to show where work or management will be undertaken on a particular feature or site. Check the individual option or capital item requirements using ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK to see if this is the case.

During work stage

For the capital works listed below, you will need to keep and submit contracts, invoices, or other documents confirming that the technical specification for the completed works have been met. If you are unable to provide this, you will need to keep and submit dated photographs of the site during the different stages of the construction or build to show that the minimum specification has been met.

Option code	Title
AB1	Nectar Flower mix
AB6	Enhanced overwinter stubble
AB7	Whole crop cereals
BE4	Management of traditional orchards
GS1	Take field corners out of management
GS3	Ryegrass seed-set as winter food for birds
GS4	Legume and herb-rich swards
GS6	Management of species-rich grassland
GS9	Management of wet grassland for breeding waders
GS10	Management of wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl
GS15	Haymaking supplement
GS17	Lenient grazing supplement
OP1	Overwintered stubble
SW3	In-field grass strips
SW4	12 metres to 24 metres watercourse or nitrogen sensitive terrestrial habitat buffer strips on cultivated land
SW7	Arable reversion to grassland with low fertiliser input
SW8	Management of intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse
SW9	Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland
SW10	Seasonal livestock removal on grassland in Severely Disadvantaged Areas on land next to streams, rivers and lakes
UP1	Enclosed rough grazing
UP2	Management of rough grazing for birds
WD4	Management of lowland wood pasture and parkland
WD7	Management of successional areas and scrub
WD9	Livestock exclusion supplement - scrub and successional areas
WD10	Management of upland wood pasture and parkland

Claim stage

For capital items, you may be required to submit dated photographs with your payment claim if you are unable to submit contracts, invoices or other documents that confirm the technical specification for the completed works.

If you have capital works that cannot be visually checked after the work has been completed, such as concreting or underground pipework, you will need to take photographs during construction.

Please follow individual capital item guidance. It is your responsibility to retain sufficient evidence to show that the investment or required management has taken place.

6.4.5 Photographic evidence quality

All photographs must meet the following standards. Requirements apply equally to digital photographs or those supplied as paper photographs.

Quality – photographs must be in focus and clearly show the relevant option, capital item or environmental feature. If you send your images by email, please send as JPEG files. Digital images should not be smaller than 600 x 400 pixels and ideally the image file size no larger than 400 KB. Printed photographs must be no smaller than 15 cm x 10 cm. Photographs can be either portrait or landscape.
Photograph to identify the environmental feature, land management option or capital item(s) concerned – it is your responsibility to have sufficient evidence that the investment or required management has taken place. For example, more than one photograph may be needed where the option, feature or capital item exceeds the frame or is not clearly evident from a single photograph.
Where possible include a significant feature to provide authenticity, for example, ditch, fence, farm building, road, telegraph pole.
Where possible mark the photographed feature location, and direction from which the photograph has been taken, with an ‘X’ and an arrow on a copy of a map (or map extract) of the agreement area.
Where scale or continuity is important include a feature, or introduce one, for example a quad bike or vehicle, or use a sighting pole (2m high with 50cm intervals marked in red and white). Take pictures consistently from the same spot for before and after photographs of the capital item or option.

6.4.6 Clearly label photographs

Use the Ordnance Survey (OS) map sheet reference and National Grid reference for the field parcel, followed by the relevant proposed or implemented option or capital item code and, if more than one image is required, the image number.

The OS map sheet reference and National Grid reference should relate to the field parcel on which the feature, multi-year management option or capital item is sited or for boundary features the adjacent field parcel. For example, if you need to take before and after photographs to show evidence that works have taken place for Gateway relocation (RP2), the image should be labelled as XX12345678_ RP2_1 and XX12345678_RP2_2.

Save digital images under the label outlined above. Clearly write the label on the reverse of printed photographs detailing the Ordnance Survey (OS) map sheet reference and National Grid reference for the field parcel, the implemented capital item code, date, Agreement Holder name and SBI.

6.5 Keeping farm records

We strongly encourage you to keep appropriate records, as it is an important part of an effective farm, or woodland management system. We recommend that you obtain and keep evidence to show that you have followed the recommended management for options in your agreement to support your claim or to support a site visit. Records will help demonstrate that you have carried out the activities in your agreement and that the funded activity is taking or has taken place.

Where there is an existing statutory or farm assurance scheme requirement to maintain relevant records, these records can be used as evidence. For example, you can use:

plant protection product application records to prove the time of application and what products were applied
NVZ requirements for nitrogen planning and recording of nitrogen applications.

You can use existing farm records (those you already keep as part of your commercial farm activities and planning) where these already meet scheme requirements. This may include pesticide records, nutrient management plans, the use of manure and fertiliser, stock and grazing records.

Where the scheme requirements are not covered by existing farm records, you will need to keep an additional record. Examples include:

where the use of pesticides (including herbicides) is prohibited or restricted to dealing with a particular problem such as injurious weeds or to a particular method such as weed wiping or spot treatment. Check that appropriate information is included as part of your Pesticides Record under ‘other/additional information’.
some recommended management of options restrict applications of manufactured fertiliser to specified levels of phosphate and potash. In these cases, if you are within an NVZ you would need to record the application of phosphate and potash in addition to the application of nitrogen.

6.5.1 Stocking records

If any of your options relate to grazing management we strongly encourage you to keep appropriate records of all grazing periods. This will help demonstrate that you meet the grazing requirements for your agreement.

You can find more information about livestock record-keeping requirements in Annex 6. You can find templates that you can use to keep these records at Livestock record keeping on GOV.UK.

6.5.2 Nutrients

If any of your options require you to keep a nutrient management plan, you should keep relevant records. Commercial nutrient recording systems for fertilisers and manures normally meet this requirement. You must keep any required nutrient records on farm and make them available during site visits if we ask for them.

You must plan each application of manure or fertiliser on your land as set out under the Farming Rules for Water. You can find more information at: Rules for farmers and land managers to prevent water pollution on GOV.UK.

6.5.3 Recommended fertiliser management system

Some Countryside Stewardship options, such as SW7 (Arable reversion to grassland with low inputs), strongly recommend that you use a recommended fertiliser management system across the farm to achieve the environmental aims.

If you want to use such multi-year options, you should do one of the following.

Demonstrate that you are using a recommended fertiliser management system across the farm.
Seek advice to adopt a recommended fertiliser management system within 18 months of the agreement start date.
Demonstrate that you qualify for exemption as a low intensity farmer. We explain below how 1, 2 and 3 are defined.

1) Demonstrate the use of a recommended fertiliser management system

You must hold sufficient farm records and documentation to demonstrate that you are using a recommended fertiliser management system and that nutrient management planning is taking place.

Farm records must confirm that:

you plan the application of nitrogen and phosphate fertiliser to each crop in each land parcel before applying it
you carry out periodic soil testing on relevant areas (every 5 years).

You must be able to show these records when we ask to see them or during a site visit. You can find more information about planning tools and advice for recommended fertiliser management systems in Note 1 below.

2) Seek advice to adopt a recommended fertiliser management system

If you cannot demonstrate that you are already following a recommended fertiliser management system, you will need to get advice, so that you can start one across your farm within 18 months of the start of the agreement. You can get advice from the Farming Advice Service on GOV.UK.

You will need to demonstrate that you are actively carrying out a fertiliser management planning system throughout the life of the agreement and send us these records if we ask to see them or show them to us during a site visit. You can ask for advice (at your own expense) but it must be from a suitably skilled agronomist or adviser. You can find more information about potential tools and advice in Note 1 below.

3) Demonstrate exemption as a low intensity farmer

You are exempt from this requirement if you can demonstrate that you are farming at a low intensity across your management or production unit or farm site. In these cases, you must meet all of the following requirements:

at least 80% of the land is grassland
you apply no more than 100 kg N per hectare per calendar year as organic manure, including what is applied directly to the field by animals
you spread no more than 90 kg N per hectare per calendar year as manufactured fertiliser and no organic manure is brought onto the farm site
when calculating the fertiliser application rate, you must exclude any area of the farm site where you do not spread fertilisers or cultivate soil (for example rough grazing).

You need to keep adequate records on the farm site to show that you qualify as a low intensity farmer. You must send us these records if we ask to see them or show them to us during a site visit. If you do not hold fertiliser records for each field parcel, you must have sufficient information recorded to show that you meet the above low intensity farmer criteria.

You can find more information on:

low intensity exemption applicants in Annex 1 Part A of the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones guidance – Guidance on areas designated as NVZs in England 2017 to 2020
how the use of nitrogen fertilisers and organic manures is restricted in NVZs by reading the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones guidance on GOV.UK.

Note 1. Guidance on using recommended fertiliser management systems and advice offered

There are several recommended fertiliser management systems available, as well as guidance and advice, such as:

the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Nutrient Management Guide (RB209) to plan the nutrient requirements of the crops you plan to grow. Other sources of nutrient management planning advice are also available.

There are a number of tools available to help you meet the requirement to plan farm nutrient use efficiently. These include:

the industry Tried and Tested Nutrient Management Plan
PLANET: a software tool to help with field level nutrient management
MANNER NPK: a software tool that provides a quick estimate of crop available nitrogen, phosphate and potash from applications of organic manure
ENCASH: a software tool that calculates the nitrogen in manure produced by different types of permanently housed pigs and poultry

All 3 software tools are on the PLANET website.

There may be other packages providing a similar service.

There is also a wide range of advice available to help support you to improve nutrient management on farm:

FACTS-qualified advisers are qualified to give advice to promote farming systems that maximise crop nutrition and protect the quality of soil, water and air and farm biodiversity. The FACTS scheme is administered by Basis Registration Ltd, and a list of qualified persons is available from them on request on the Basis website.

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) is targeted in parts of the country where there are water and air quality issues linked to diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA). These areas have been highlighted on the MAGIC website, under ‘Countryside Stewardship Targeting & Scoring Layers’, then ‘Water, and then ‘Countryside Stewardship Water Quality Priority Areas’.

6.6 Soil sampling

If you’re applying manure or fertiliser to cultivated agricultural land (including grassland where applicable), you must plan each application of manure and fertiliser taking into account the results of soil tests to make sure the application does not exceed soil and crop needs.

The requirement for soil sampling is set out under the Farming Rules for Water. Read Rules for farmers and land managers to prevent water pollution and check Countryside Stewardship grants.

Cultivated agricultural land is one or both of the following:

land you’ve ploughed, sowed or harvested at least once in the last year
land where you’ve applied organic manure or fertiliser at least once in the last 3 years.

The results of soil tests must show the pH and levels of:

nitrogen - You can estimate the soil nitrogen supply (SNS) index of a field by the Field Assessment Method described AHDB Nutrient Management Guide (RB209) on pages 20 to 25.
phosphorus
potassium
magnesium

Soil test results must be no more than 5 years old at the time of application. Contact the Environment Agency if you need more advice.

6.6.1 Soil Sampling on Scheduled Monuments

If your land parcel contains a Scheduled Monument, you must avoid this when taking soil samples. If it cannot be avoided because the Scheduled Monument occupies a significant proportion of the land parcel, you need to get consent from Historic England before you take the soil samples.

You must get consent before taking samples to avoid a potential offence under the 1979 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act.

Use the Consent for soil sampling on scheduled monuments form on GOV.UK to request consent. Then send it to Historic England, for consideration, using the details in the guidance attached to the form. Do not carry out the sampling until consent has been given.

You must send the results of the soil analysis to us and a copy to Historic England. Details will be included in your s17 agreement (under section 17 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979).

If you find any archaeological artefacts during sampling or through sample analysis, you must send details to Historic England and the local Historic Environment Record (HER). This includes evidence of any artefacts discovered outside the Scheduled Area but within the wider field parcel containing the Scheduled Monument.

6.7 Identifying species richness of grassland

For 4 grassland options you must complete and keep a declaration of qualifying criteria as we may ask to see this.

The 4 options are:

Permanent grassland with very low inputs (outside SDAs) (GS2)
Permanent grassland with very low inputs in SDAs (GS5)
Management of species-rich grassland (GS6)
Organic land management - unimproved permanent grassland (OT2)

You can use the template declaration or you can use your own preferred format to meet these requirements.

6.8 Measuring Countryside Stewardship option areas and widths

This section outlines how and where you should start to measure the areas and widths of Countryside Stewardship options, and where you can place them in the field parcel in relation to cross compliance requirements.

We will publish any changes on GOV.UK.

These requirements are updated annually and apply to that calendar year, regardless of when a Countryside Stewardship agreement started.

Countryside Stewardship options cannot be used to deliver mandatory requirements under BPS – Countryside Stewardship options must go beyond the requirements of cross compliance.
Cross compliance requirements apply to all Countryside Stewardship Agreement Holders whether or not you receive BPS payments. However, cross compliance will not apply to agreements covering only stand-alone capital items where BPS is not claimed.

6.8.1 The relationship between Countryside Stewardship buffer strip options and Cross Compliance: examples of where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options

This section applies to Countryside Stewardship buffer strip options SW1-4, WD3, and WT1, WT2 as listed below. The general principle is that the Countryside Stewardship buffer strip may not overlap with the cross compliance strip.

Arable situations:

4m to 6m buffer strip on cultivated land (SW1)
In-field grass strips (SW3)
12m to 24m watercourse or nitrogen sensitive terrestrial habitat buffer strip on cultivated land (SW4)
Buffering in-field ponds and ditches on arable land (WT2)
Woodland edges on arable land (WD3)

Permanent grassland situations:

4m to 6m buffer strip on intensive grassland (SW2)
Buffering in-field ponds and ditches in improved grassland (WT1)

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a hedge (Diagram 1)

Where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options in relation to cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a HEDGE.

In Arable and Permanent Grassland situations.

Note: The 2m cross compliance strip, measured from the centre of the boundary, still applies where there is a fence adjacent to the hedge.

Where a fence is less than 2m from the centre of the hedge, the Countryside Stewardship option can still only start at 2m from the centre of the hedge (there will be a gap between the fence and the Countryside Stewardship option).

Where the fence is more than 2m from the centre of the hedge, the Countryside Stewardship option can start from the fence.

Countryside Stewardship arable options adjacent to a ditch (Diagram 2) – ditch measures 2m maximum width

Where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options in relation to cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a DITCH and the distance from the centre to the top of the bank is 1m.

In this example the cross compliance strip would be 2m wide measured from the centre of the ditch.

Diagram 2a – ditch wider than 2m

Where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options in relation to cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a WIDE DITCH and the distance from the centre to the top of the bank is more than 1m.

Countryside Stewardship arable options adjacent to a ditch

Diagram 2b – ditch less than 2m

Where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options in relation to cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a NARROW DITCH and the distance from the centre to the top of the bank is less than 1m.

In this example the cross compliance strip would be 2.0m wide from the centre of the ditch.

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a wall or fence

Diagram 3 – wall or fence where there is no cross compliance strip required

There are no cross compliance requirements where the boundary is a WALL or FENCE. In Arable and Permanent grassland situations:

Countryside Stewardship option can start immediately next to the wall or fence (but allowing access around the field as necessary).

NOTE: If there is a ditch on the field side of the wall, this becomes the cross compliance feature and diagram 2a/2b applies as appropriate.

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a wood

Diagram 4 There are no cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a wood

In Arable and Permanent Grassland situations.

Countryside Stewardship option can start immediately next to the wood. WD3 is Woodland edges on arable land 6m.

Note: If there is a ditch on the field side of the wood, this becomes the cross compliance feature and diagram 2a/2b applies as appropriate.

Diagram 5: composite example of Countryside Stewardship options and cross compliance

Cross compliance in an arable and permanent grassland situation against a ditch and hedge.

6.8.2 The relationship between Countryside Stewardship options and Cross Compliance: examples of where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options

Countryside Stewardship buffer strips must not overlap with cross compliance requirements.

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a ditch

There must be no overlap of Countryside Stewardship options with the cross compliance strip (see diagram 2).

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a watercourse

A watercourse is defined under GAEC 1 as ‘all surface waters, including coastal water, estuaries, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, canals and field ditches. It includes temporarily dry watercourses.’

6.8.3 The relationship between whole parcel Countryside Stewardship options and Cross Compliance

For whole-parcel Countryside Stewardship options, the required option management will go further and require management in addition to any cross compliance requirements. You do not need to reduce the area of the option for cross compliance strips when claiming for whole parcel options.

However, in all other instances, options should not be on the same area as cross compliance strips. If a combination of part parcel options covers the whole parcel, you need to ensure the cross compliance strip is not included in the area of any of the options.

If a Countryside Stewardship strip (for example, an arable buffer strip, grass margin or wild bird seed mixture) is in the same parcel as a Countryside Stewardship option applied on a part parcel basis (such as basic overwinter stubble (AB2)) occupying the remainder of the parcel, you will need to deduct the cross compliance zone, the area of the Countryside Stewardship strip and any other ineligible areas from the total parcel area to calculate the eligible area for the option occupying the remainder of the parcel.

6.9 Publicity: requirements

The Terms & Conditions require you to comply with all instructions and guidance relating to acknowledging and publicising the support provided. This includes using any materials or templates which are provided for this purpose.

6.10 Metal detecting: requirements

Metal detecting is not allowed on Scheduled Monuments, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and known archaeological sites on Agreement Land. These are identified on the FER and the HEFER.

On all other Agreement Land, you must make sure that metal detecting does not conflict with the requirements of your agreement, in particular where proposed metal detecting may affect your ability to meet recommended management of an option. For example, options supporting ground-nesting birds, priority habitats, or rare arable plants are incompatible with ground disturbance, and such activities may cause a breach of agreement and result in recovering monies already paid or withholding future payments – read Section 7.4.

Any metal detecting that you allow on Agreement Land should follow best practice as set out in the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales (2017). You must report all finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

6.11 Archaeological fieldwork: requirements

If archaeological fieldwork (such as survey, test pitting or excavation) is proposed on Agreement Land that would cause, or may cause, ground disturbance or damage to any known archaeological sites or other environmental assets, you will need to request approval from us via a Minor and Temporary Adjustment (MTA) – read Section 7.10. Any proposed fieldwork must also have the written support of the local authority Historic Environment Service.

You will need written consent before any fieldwork can begin in the following circumstances:

any archaeological fieldwork involving ground disturbance on Scheduled Monuments - this requires Scheduled Monument Consent from the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as advised by Historic England
On Scheduled Monuments - any geophysical survey requires a Section 42 licence from Historic England
Any archaeological fieldwork (including the use of ground-penetrating radar or remote sensing) on SSSIs requires written consent from Natural England.

6.12 Farm Environment Record (FER) and Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER)

As set out at Section 4.10, it is a mandatory requirement to retain all the features identified in the FER and the HEFER, and to protect them from damage or removal for the period of the agreement.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the data controller for personal data you give to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). For information on how we handle personal data search for ‘Rural Payments Agency Personal Information Charter’ on GOV.UK.

6.14 Subsidy control rules

Countryside Stewardship payments may be subject to subsidy control or equivalent rules.

We will publish further information on GOV.UK.

Question 2

7 Agreement  management: including how to claim, reductions and amending or ending your agreement

Accepted Answer

You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section as these are mandatory. It explains the claims process, including evidence you need to support your claim. It also includes information about reductions and site visits.

A Countryside Stewardship agreement is made up of:

the Countryside Stewardship terms and conditions, at Annex 1
the Agreement Document (which sets out Agreement Holder-specific details)
the supplementary documents referred to in the Agreement Document.

7.1 Submitting a claim

You should sign into the Rural Payments service and submit a claim online.

You can read guidance on how to submit a claim online.

You must submit your claim in accordance with the instructions provided in this manual and on the claim form.

If you cannot make a claim online, contact us to ask for a claim form.

Claims process

The claims process is different for management options and capital items. Read the following sections for more details of the different claims processes.

7.1.1 Submitting claims for multi-year management options

Mid Tier agreements, including the 4 Wildlife Offers, are agreements that contain management options and last for at least 5 years. You should claim for these management options each year.

The deadline for multi-year CS payment claims (revenue claims) in 2023 is midnight on 15 May. We must receive your claim by then. We must also receive any paperwork we ask for to support the management options part of the claim when you make the payment claim. If your agreement includes rotational options, and you are unable to include the location of these options on your claim, you must send us the location no later than 1 September. It is your responsibility to make sure we receive your annual claim by the claim deadline. If you have any issues submitting your claim, either online or using a paper form, you must contact us and let us know before the claim deadline.

If you do not make a claim by midnight on 15 May, your payment may be reduced. If you do not make a claim by midnight on 31 August 2023, you will not receive a payment except in cases of good reasons for a breach.

Read Section 7.4 on Reductions and Section 7.11 on good reasons for a breach.

7.1.2 Multi-year claims from land managers with multiple agreements

If your business covers a number of farms and you manage it as a single unit, or you use a single vendor or Single Business Identifier (SBI) number, you can have more than one agreement for that SBI (read Section 3.1.3). If you have more than one multi-year agreement in place you must fill in separate multi-year Countryside Stewardship payment claims for each agreement.

7.1.3 Capital items within multi-year agreements

A Mid Tier agreement lasts for 5 years and includes a 2 year programme of capital works. You must complete all capital works within 2 years of the agreement start date. You then have 3 months to submit any final claim.

You can submit a capital item claim for reimbursement at any time of the year. To do this, the approved work must have been completed in line with the agreement and you must have incurred the costs. This means you must be able to show that you have been charged or invoiced for the full payment before you submit your capital item claim. If you cannot show that you have incurred the costs for works undertaken, your claim may be rejected.

If your capital claim is part of a multi-year agreement, you can make a claim in stages for certain capital items according to the schedule in your Agreement Document. The minimum value of any single claim is £500, except for the final claim, which can be less than £500.

You should read your agreement document to find the dates by which you need to claim capital works.

7.1.4 Single claim water and air capital items

We cannot accept part claims for the water capital items listed below:

Code	Capital Item
RP4	Livestock and machinery hard tracks
RP7	Sediment ponds and traps
RP8	Construction of wetland for the treatment of pollution
RP11	Swales
RP13	Yard – underground drainage pipework
RP15	Concrete yard renewal
RP17	Storage tanks underground
RP18	Above ground tanks
RP22	Sheep dip drainage aprons and sumps
RP24	Lined biobed plus pesticide loading and washdown area
RP25	Lined biobed with existing washdown area
RP27	Sprayer or applicator load and wash-down area
RP28	Roofing (sprayer washdown area, manure storage area, livestock gathering area, slurry stores, silage stores)
RP29	Self-supporting covers for slurry and anaerobic digestate stores
RP30	Floating covers for slurry and anaerobic digestate stores and lagoons
AQ1	Automatic slurry scraper
AQ2	Low ammonia emission flooring for livestock housing
SW9	Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland
SW10	Seasonal livestock removal on grassland in Severely Disadvantaged Areas on land next to streams, rivers and lakes
UP1	Enclosed rough grazing
UP2	Management of rough grazing for birds
WD4	Management of lowland wood pasture and parkland
WD7	Management of successional areas and scrub
WD9	Livestock exclusion supplement - scrub and successional areas
WD10	Management of upland wood pasture and parkland

7.2 Evidence required to support your claim

7.2.1 Using contractors for multi-year management options and capital works

You can employ contractors to carry out agricultural work on your Agreement Land, or to carry out work under the Countryside Stewardship multi-year management options and capital items.

You must tell the contractor about the agreement and its requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that work carried out by contractors does not breach the terms of your agreement. If the contractor commits any breaches on the land, you will be responsible for any payment reductions.

You must keep records of the work carried out by contractors in either paper or electronic form, for the full period of the agreement and for at least 7 years after your agreement has ended. You must also produce these records if we ask you to.

7.2.2 Invoices for actual costs

You may need to provide invoices for some capital items. You can check this in your Agreement Document or in ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK.

Invoices and receipts must be dated and must relate to activities after the start date of the agreement and after you have received your agreement offer. We will reject your claim and you will not be paid if we find that work was carried out before or after the period of your agreement.

If you are claiming for capital items based on actual costs you must send receipted invoices (that show payment for materials and contracted work) with the claim.

When we ask for invoices and receipts to support your claim, the following requirements apply:

Provide original receipted invoices for the purchase of every item claimed.
We can only treat invoices as receipted if they are annotated with some form of acknowledgement that the company or individual providing the goods or services involved has received the payment. The following are also acceptable evidence:
a till receipt from a retailer for purchases of standard, off-the-shelf items. These do not need to be separately receipted as paid because a receipt of this nature is only issued after payment
if receipted invoices are not available, a copy of a bank or credit card statement which shows the work has been paid for in full when supported by the invoice.
We can only accept an invoice if the document is an original, or a computerised carbon copy on an original letterhead, and bears the supplier’s official receipt (which could be a stamp, a signature or with the payment details shown on a computer printout of the invoice), confirming or annotating that the value of the invoice has been paid.
All costs must clearly relate to each individual claimed capital item.
Goods that are purchased second-hand (where the agreement specifies that second-hand items are acceptable) or that have been bought online also need to have receipted invoices provided for them, unless they are standard off-the-shelf items as described above, in which case the standard receipt for payment is considered adequate.
The invoice must not pre-date the agreement start date. If it does, we reserve the right to reject all or some of the claim.
Where you have used your own labour for construction, you must keep time sheets and send these with your claim.

You do not need to send invoices and time sheets when claiming for all other multi-year management options and capital items (that are based on fixed cost). But you must keep receipted invoices and time sheets and make them available to us when we ask to see them. This includes those for specific capital expenditure.

7.2.3 VAT for actual costs

If your Countryside Stewardship agreement includes actual cost capital items:

if you are registered with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for Value Added Tax (VAT) - you cannot include the cost of the VAT charged on your capital items in your capital items claims
if you are not registered with HMRC for VAT and you can provide evidence of this, such as a statement from a registered accountant (for example, a chartered accountant or certified accountant) - then you can include the VAT charge in your actual cost claims.

If you submit a statement from an accountant, the accountant will need to provide a letter on headed paper which confirms the following:

they are a registered accountant
they act as the accountant for the agreement holder’s business
they can confirm that you as the agreement holder are not registered with HMRC for VAT.

7.2.4 Using your own or a farm employee’s labour for capital works

You can use your own labour or a farm employee’s labour for carrying out capital works. If you do so, you will need to prepare time sheets signed by the employee and employer showing all of the following:

the hourly rate for your labour or a farm employee’s labour
what work was carried out
the date the work was done.

You must keep these records electronically or on paper for the full period of your agreement and for at least 7 years following the end of the agreement. You must also produce them if we ask you to.

You must tell the employee(s) about the agreement and its requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that work carried out using your own labour or a farm employee’s labour does not breach the terms of your agreement. If the employee commits any breaches, you will be responsible for any payment reductions.

7.2.5 Using your own machinery for capital works

You can use machinery and equipment owned by your business to carry out capital works, or you can hire machinery or equipment, for example, a cement mixer. You must keep any invoices and records of the machinery used, in either paper or electronic form, for the full period of the agreement and for at least 7 years after your agreement has ended. You must produce these records if we ask you to.

Your records must include:

dates and times the machinery was used
what it was used for
the rate applied to the usage and how this was arrived at
the name of the operator.

7.3 When will I get paid?

7.3.1 The impact of transfers on claims

If you are in the process of buying or selling land that is under an agreement, or entering and ending a tenancy arrangement on the land, you need to consider the rules on who should submit a claim. Read Section 7.8 of this manual if you are:

an Agreement Holder in the process of selling all or part of the land under agreement and transferring the agreement management obligations for this land to the purchaser
buying land from an Agreement Holder and taking on the agreement management obligations from the seller
entering or ending a tenancy arrangement with an Agreement Holder.

Who should submit claims and who will receive payment will depend on whether the land transfer takes place before, on, or after 16 May 2022.

Any outstanding payments for Countryside Stewardship are made to the transferee (new owner/ occupier) providing they take on the agreement and are eligible.

Capital-only agreements cannot be transferred. Read Transferring a Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreement for more information.

7.3.2 When will I get paid for multi-year management options?

We will check your claim to make sure that it is correct. We may visit you to review and assess delivery of the option or options in your agreement. If your claim is correct, we will pay you. If we need to make reductions to your claim, then these will be applied to your payment. We normally make annual payments for multi-year management options in one instalment.

We normally start making payments for multi-year management options in the December following the claim, up until June.

7.3.3 Payments for all agreements

We will make all payments directly into your nominated bank account.

7.4 Reductions

If you breach the terms of your agreement or you do not meet the relevant eligibility criteria on all or part of your Agreement Land, we may reduce or withhold future grant payments and may recover payments you have already received.

This section lists some examples when reductions may be applied and when payments may be withheld or recovered.

We can only pay you for work carried out according to your agreement and the scheme rules.

7.4.1 When reductions may apply

We will reduce the amount you have been or will be paid if you:

have given false or misleading information
have claimed payment on land which is not eligible or is not under your management control
have not met the aims of the options chosen
have over-claimed for capital works
have not followed the scheme rules
have not met the cross compliance rules where applicable
have submitted a multi-year agreement claim late
have submitted a change to a multi-year agreement claim late – this includes changes to supporting information/evidence.

This is not a complete list and there may be other examples of where we will apply reductions.

In cases of good reasons for a breach, we will consider the facts on a case-by-case basis before deciding whether to pay or reduce a claim (read Section 7.11 for more information).

7.4.2 Late payment claims for multi-year agreements

You can make a late claim after 15 May up until midnight on 31 August but you will receive a reduction to your payment. Read the Important dates section of the How to complete a Countryside Stewardship revenue claim by email or post guidance.

You cannot make claims after midnight on 31 August apart from in cases of good reasons for a breach (read Section 7.11).

7.4.3 Changing a payment claim relating to a multi-year agreement after it has been submitted

You can change a claim up to midnight on 31 August without receiving a reduction to your payment, provided we received your original claim by 15 May.

You cannot change a claim after 31 August, apart from:

in cases of good reasons for a breach (read Section 7.11 for more information)
where you withdraw all or part of your claim (read Section 7.4.4 for more information)
obvious error (read Section 7.4.5 for more information).

7.4.4 Withdrawing all or part of a payment claim for a multi-year agreement

You can withdraw all or part of a payment claim at any time unless:

you have already been told about an error in the payment claim (or the relevant part of the payment claim)
you have had a site visit (or receive advance warning of a site visit)
a site visit reveals a breach of the rules
errors were found by us when we cross checked information against other relevant funding records for your land.

7.4.5 Obvious errors

Where you have made a straightforward mistake on a payment claim (and it is obvious from a simple administrative check of the claim), you can ask us to correct it. We may be able to do this without applying a reduction.

However, if you make the same mistake more than once, we may not accept it as an obvious error.

7.4.6 Notified errors

If you have made a mistake on your payment claim, you can notify us at any time in writing. However, this may affect the payment you receive, particularly if you have already been told of any non-compliances in your payment claim or you have received advance warning of a site visit.

7.4.7 Claiming on land that is not eligible or option is not present

If you declare land that is not eligible (as set out in Section 3.1.2) or does not have the relevant option in your payment claim present on it, we will reduce your claim. We can only pay for the eligible land/options identified during administrative checks or site visits.

If we find that land is ineligible, you will not receive a payment for it. We may also recover previous payments if we find land was ineligible for payment in previous years. In certain cases, if we find significant breaches, your agreement may be terminated and all payments recovered.

If you have not met all of the option requirements, we may reduce or suspend your payment or we may recover the full amount of the payment.

7.4.8 Cross compliance

If we find a breach of cross compliance rules anywhere on your holding (including associated common land) by any of the following:

you
employees
workers and family members

then you will be held liable for their actions.

If we find a breach by any of the following:

agents
contractors
agronomists

then you might be held liable for their actions.

The cross compliance guide changes annually, so you need to read the latest version of the Guide to Cross Compliance in England to find out about cross compliance rules.

7.4.9 Delivering the aims of your options

Where there is uncertainty about whether or not the aims of your management options have been delivered, we will take into account any records or evidence you may have kept to demonstrate delivery of the aims of the options. This will include any steps you’ve taken to follow the recommended management of options, which you can find by searching ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK. It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on these to support your claim.

In some cases we may write to tell you what you need to do to improve, and we may also suspend your payments until you make the improvements. If appropriate, we may also offer you advice or guidance to help you meet the requirements of your agreement. Once you can demonstrate the improvements have been made we will pay you.

If you do not fulfil your obligations under the agreement, we will reduce or withhold your payment or seek recovery. In some cases, we may terminate your agreement and/or refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years, for example, if we find intentional non-compliance or fraud.

For capital items, you must follow the requirements for the specific item, including any specifications you need to adhere to and retain any records that are required to support your claim.

The hectarage of rotational arable options you signed up to in your agreement is the hectarage to be delivered every year of the agreement term. It is part of your agreement to make sure that you do this. By making sure that you deliver the agreed hectarage, you will be able to claim the full amount under your agreement.

7.4.10 Breaches of agreement

If we find a breach, we will write to you and tell you. You’ll have the opportunity to appeal if you do not agree with our findings. If a breach is confirmed, we’ll work out the most appropriate action we need to take and let you know. We may apply more than one course of action depending on the breach found. We’ll assess the level of breach in a fair and consistent manner, on a case-by-case basis, using the following set of criteria:

to what extent the breach can be rectified
the circumstances, nature and consequences surrounding the breach
any failure to cooperate with site visits, or further investigations
any steps taken to report a change in circumstances
whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence
whether it was intentional
whether it was because of reckless of negligent action.

If there’s a breach of your agreement or the regulations, we may:

ask you to correct the breach
issue a letter explaining that we’ve assessed the breach and what you have to do
amend your agreement.

For more serious breaches, we may:

reduce the payments you get, or withhold part of them
reduce or withhold money from other schemes
recover money we’ve already paid.

In the most extreme cases, we may:

end your agreement
stop you receiving financial assistance (other than BPS) under any other scheme for up to 2 years.

In exceptional circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion of a serious breach or fraud, then we may access land and your premises without notice, using powers of entry. In these circumstances, for example as part of a fraud investigation, we may access any computer that’s been used in connection with the evidence or these records.

If we find breaches during administrative checks or any site visits, we will write to tell you and you will have the opportunity to make written representations if you feel that our findings are incorrect.

In these cases, we will work out the level of reduction we need to apply, by looking at the severity of the breach and whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence. We may apply a reduction to your claims, unless you can demonstrate you were compliant.

A brief explanation of how breaches are assessed is set out below.

Severity

We will assess what has happened due to the breach or non-compliance and consider the objectives of the agreement or options that were not met. For example, ploughing a priority habitat would be classed as a severe breach. As part of this assessment, we will also take into account whether the breach will have short or long-term impacts.

Re-occurrence

The assessment will depend on several factors, for example whether a similar event of non-compliance has been found in previous years of your agreement and whether the re-occurrence concerns the same or a similar measure (for example agri-environment or organic).

If we consider that a breach is so serious that it cannot be rectified, we may have to cancel the agreement. In serious circumstances, you may be forbidden from entering another agri-environment scheme for up to 2 years.

7.4.11 Refusal or withdrawal of support claimed

In certain cases we may refuse, or withdraw in full, the support claimed and terminate your existing agreement. We will do this if we think any of the following has happened:

you have committed a serious non-compliance
you have provided false evidence
you have negligently failed to provide the necessary information (for instance, where we have asked for it repeatedly and there is no good reason why you have not provided it).

We will also take into account:

to what extent the breach can be rectified
the circumstances, nature and consequences surrounding the breach
any failure to cooperate with site visits, or further investigations
any steps taken to report a change in circumstances
whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence
whether it was intentional
whether it was because of reckless or negligent action.

If we have to withdraw support for these reasons, we will terminate the existing agreement and you will not be permitted to reapply for the agreement for two years. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to two years. If this is the case, we will tell you, and you will be able to appeal against this decision.

7.4.12 Suspension of payments

In certain circumstances, where a breach of agreement is of a minor nature, so does not affect the objectives of an option, you will have 3 months from the date we tell you what action to take to rectify the breach. However, we may withhold payments until you have rectified the breach.

7.4.13 Capital payments: over-declaration of expenditure

If you submit a claim for more than the value of the costs which are eligible to be claimed, we will reduce the payment to the correct amount.

7.5 Scheme control: administrative checks and site visits

We are required to make sure that Countryside Stewardship is properly controlled, to protect public money. To support this, we undertake administrative checks and site visits to monitor Agreement Holder compliance with the rules governing their agreements (and cross compliance on the whole holding) and the success of Countryside Stewardship overall.

We undertake 3 main checks:

administrative record checks
agreement monitoring visits
site visits.

You must allow RPA (or their authorised representatives or auditors) to access your land or premises to carry out Countryside Stewardship site visits. Other UK public authorities may also visit you to make sure you are meeting cross compliance requirements. Natural England, the Forestry Commission or Historic England may also visit your site to monitor environmental progress or check you are following specific management.

You must help and co-operate with any person carrying out a site visit. Any refusal to do so or obstruction will be treated as a breach of the Countryside Stewardship terms and conditions, and you may face recovery, suspension or termination of your agreement. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years.

7.5.1 Administrative record checks

We will check all stages of the application and claim processes, including your application form, claim forms and, where appropriate, the nature and quality of any supporting evidence, such as receipts and farm records. This is to make sure that you meet eligibility requirements at the application stage, and that various forms and records match up during the whole agreement period.

If you do not provide records when asked, or there are discrepancies, we will treat this as a breach of your agreement. It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on this to support your claim.

7.5.2 Agreement monitoring visits

Advisers may visit sites to monitor environmental progress, discuss site reports, or if you ask us to visit.

During the period of your agreement, Historic England will visit your site if you have either of the following management options on a Scheduled Monument:

Scheduled Monuments which have reduced-depth, non-inversion cultivation on historic and archaeological features (HS3)
Restricted depth crop establishment to protect archaeology under an arable rotation (HS9).

Results from these visits will be discussed with us and appropriate action taken.

7.5.3 Site visits

Each year, we will carry out site visits on a sample of agreements, to make sure environmental aims are being delivered and scheme aims or requirements have been met.

If we select you for a site visit, we will check that you are meeting the aims of the management options. We may also check some specific areas, for example your use of fertilisers and/or pesticides, seed mixes, or stocking levels on land.

If we can see that you have met the aims of management options, we’ll not ask you to provide additional evidence to show this.

Unless we have reasons to suspect that you are in breach of your agreement, we will seek to agree a date and time for a site visit where possible. If not, you will be notified at least 48 hours in advance of the site visit. If there is uncertainty about whether or not the aims of the options have been delivered, we will take into account any records or evidence you may have kept to demonstrate delivery of the aims of the option. This includes any steps you’ve taken to follow the recommended management set out in ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the ‘grant finder’) on GOV.UK.

We recommend that you obtain and keep evidence to show you have followed the recommended management of your agreement to support your claim or to support a site visit. Records will help demonstrate that you have carried out the activities in your agreement and that the funded activity is taking or has taken place. It also helps demonstrate that public money is being spent effectively and is delivering the intended results.

It is your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on these to support your claim.

For capital items, you must follow the requirements for the specific item, including any specifications you need to adhere to and retain any records that are required to support your claim.

If at the visit we find a breach of the rules, we may apply reductions (read Section 7.4). You can find more information on visits at Agreement holders’ information on GOV.UK.

7.6 Terminating agreements early

We have the right to end the agreement with written notice to you, if one of the following apply:

you have breached the terms of the agreement
we find intentional non-compliance or fraud
there is a change in circumstances affecting your eligibility to receive Countryside Stewardship payments
you have failed to repay any sum which is owed to us.

We may also at any time terminate your agreement and any future payments by giving you 6 months’ written notice.

You may end your agreement at any time by giving us written notice. In these situations you may need to repay all or part of the payments you have received. Your obligations under the agreement do not end until we have received this repayment.

7.7 Break Clause

There is no break clause for Mid Tier agreements.

The exception to this rule is if you have secured an agreement in one of our environmental land management schemes. In this case you will be able to end or amend your agreement early, at agreed points. Read Section 6.1 for more information.

7.8 Transfers of land under agreement

7.8.1 Selling or transferring land to another party

We will consider requests from the Agreement Holder to transfer an agreement (in whole or part) to another party due to:

a change in business structure
death
inheritance
sale, lease, or other similar transfer of land.

If we approve the transfer request, any options associated with the transferred land parcels will have a standalone Countryside Stewardship agreement on the same terms and conditions. The agreement cannot be re-negotiated at the point of transfer and the land under the agreement cannot be added to another agri-environment agreement.

The agreement will also expire at the end of the original agreement term. You should tell the new owner/occupier about the agreement before transferring any Agreement Land.

The new owner/occupier (transferee) should contact us for a Transfer Request Form, to fill in and return to us, using our details at Annex 8.

If the new owner or occupier is willing to continue with the agreement, they must fill in and return the relevant part of the Transfer Request Form to let us know, as soon as possible, and no later than 90 calendar days beginning with the first day after the date of the transfer.

If either of the following apply:

the new owner or occupier chooses not to continue with the agreement on the transferred land
we do not receive the new owner or occupier’s confirmation of their intention to continue with the agreement on the transferred land

we will terminate the agreement for that land. You will not need to repay any multi-year annual payments for the period when the Agreement Land was in your ownership or occupation because of the transfer. (However, if you have breached the agreement you may need to repay monies.)

If there are capital items associated with the transferred land parcels please contact us. You may need to repay all or part of any grants received for capital items.

If you only transfer part of your Agreement Land, we expect you to continue with the existing options on the land you have kept in your agreement. The amended agreement will run for the remaining term of the original agreement.

You (the transferor) must tell us that the land parcels have transferred to the new SBI. You can transfer the land parcels using the Rural Payments service or by filling in an RLE1 form.

Read Transferring a Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreement for more information.

7.8.2 Changes to customer details or businesses

If there is a change to your customer details or business structure which means that we give you a new SBI, we will treat this as a transfer.

In cases where the land you’ve acquired is already under an agreement (for example, ES, EWGS or CS) and does not remain at the same or a higher level of management, the original Agreement Holder may need to repay grants made under that agreement.

7.8.3 When will agreement transfers take effect?

You can contact us to find out what you need to do, when the transfer will take effect and the impact on any outstanding payments, and how to fill in the Transfer Request Form.

We recommend that each party involved in a transfer takes independent legal advice to make sure that their respective obligations or liabilities are built into the relevant transfer documents (for example the contract of sale or the lease agreement). However, we do not pay any costs incurred in the transfer process.

If a transfer is in progress but has not been fully completed when the annual claim needs to be submitted, the new owner/occupier will need to countersign the claim form for the land they will be taking on. If this is the case, please contact us for the counter signatory annex to the claim form.

Change in Circumstances

You must notify us as soon as you can if there is a change in your circumstances that might:

Affect the amount of funding you have been or will be paid
Prevent you from complying with the conditions of your agreement
Prevent you from carrying out the work set out in your agreement, including preventing you from carrying out the work to the agreed standard or in the agreed timeframe
Affect your continued entitlement to agreement funding, for example if you no longer have management control of the land parcels included in your agreement.

7.9 Amendments to the agreement

7.9.1 Changes requested by the Agreement Holder

You should be able to carry out the multi-year options and management under your agreement without difficulty. However, should an exceptional situation arise where you need to amend or change the choice or location of multi-year options, you can ask us to amend your agreement. If you do this, you may need to repay all or part of previous payments that you have received.

It’s important that there is consistent management during the period of the agreement to make sure that the environmental benefits are achieved. We will therefore only agree to changes that are necessary to achieve the objectives of the scheme. You need written permission from us before you can:

amend or reschedule approved capital items
amend or add multi-year options to an agreement that has started.

You should contact us if you would like to discuss an amendment to your agreement. If you wish to reschedule capital items, you must contact us before the end of the original agreement period to complete the capital items (normally 31 December of Year 2 of the agreement).

We must agree to the request before you make any changes to option location or management. All amendments to multi-year agreements come into effect from 1 January of the next calendar year. We will write to confirm if your request is successful. The amendment will not be valid until we have written to you agreeing to the amendment and advising you of the date from which it will take effect. You must continue to manage your agreement under the existing recommended management of options until the date the amendment takes effect.

7.9.2 Variation of agreements

Occasionally, we may need to vary the agreement in line with changes to law and in other exceptional circumstances. In applying for the scheme, you accept that such changes may be made at any time. We will tell you about these changes on our website in a ‘List of changes’ document. Where the changes will significantly affect the land management required, or financial aspects of the agreement, we will tell you.

If adjustments are needed to meet changes in regulations, relevant mandatory standards, requirements or obligations but you are not prepared to accept these changes, your agreement will end. You will not need to repay monies from the agreement.

7.10 Minor and temporary adjustments to agreement management

You may consider that, due to factors beyond your control in a particular year, you will be temporarily prevented from carrying out some of the management required under your agreement. If this is the case, you can apply to us for a minor and temporary adjustment to the management requirements that apply that year.

Examples include:

where bad weather such as snow or drought is preventing normal grazing and stock require supplementary feeding, but the agreement does not allow this
where there is a serious weed infestation which is likely to prevent the management required and the only way to deal with it is by using herbicides, but the agreement does not allow this.

You can request a minor and temporary adjustment to the management requirements set out in the agreement by filling in a Minor and Temporary Adjustment form on GOV.UK.

Once you have filled in the form, you need to return it to us by email to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk. Make sure the email address you use to return the form is registered on the Rural Payments service. If you are unable to access the internet you can call us and request a paper form. We’ll send you a form to fill in and return to us by post (see Annex 8 for our contact details).

Permission is not automatic and we will require a reasonable time to consider any request. During periods of extreme weather where access to forage is severely restricted and the welfare of livestock is at risk, we may be able to provide conditional consent over the telephone or by email. However, this must be followed by a formal written request and permission.

Generally, simple, straightforward cases will be dealt with within 20 working days of receiving your form. We will deal with more complicated cases as quickly as possible, though these may involve contacting you to clarify details.

If you act without written or conditional permission, recoveries and/or reductions for a breach of agreement may be applied – read Section 7.4 for more information.

When looking at your request, we will consider the following:

alternative management – for example in the case of supplementary feeding when there is deep snow on the ground, is there alternative grazing available, or can the livestock be moved?
the specifics of the minor and temporary adjustment– what adjustment is necessary, where and for what period of time it will apply
the impact of the proposed activity on the payment
the net environmental impact of the proposed activity
evidence from third parties
the administrative cost of making a reduction to the payment (if required).

You will not be reimbursed for any additional management costs that might arise from a minor and temporary adjustment.

We cannot approve a minor and temporary adjustment to an agreement if this is likely to, or will, lead to a breach of legislation, general scheme requirements, eligibility conditions, or the cross compliance rules.

If we agree to the suggested minor and temporary adjustment, we will write to or email you with permission. You should keep this approval with your Agreement Document.

7.11 Good reasons for a breach

You may be unable to meet your requirements under the agreement because of exceptional circumstances. If this happens, you must write to tell us, within 8 weeks from the date on which you (or any person authorised to act for you) are able to do so.

You will need to provide written evidence to show:

what has happened
how the event meant you were unable to meet the scheme rules

Good reasons for a breach may include, but are not limited to:

the death of the Agreement Holder
serious illness
a severe weather event
the accidental destruction of capital items connected to your agreement
damage caused by criminality
supply chain issues
an epizootic or a plant disease affecting part or all of your crops, trees or livestock

We will consider the facts to decide whether or not the Agreement Holder is relieved of all or part of their obligations under the agreement, and whether all or part of the grant should be withheld or repaid.

If you are aware of the issue when entering into your agreement then it is unlikely to be considered a good reason for a breach.

7.12 Disputes, appeals and complaints

If you are unhappy with a decision we have taken about your application or agreement, you can submit a complaint.

If you’re unhappy with a decision we’ve taken or service you’ve had from us, you can ask us to reconsider. If you’re still unhappy with the result of our decision, you can appeal.

You can email or write to us, or call us. See Annex 8 for our contact details.

The full guidance about how to complain is on GOV.UK. This also includes information on how to request a reconsideration or submit an appeal.

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Applies to England

6 Scheme requirements and procedures

6.1 Entering into an agreement

6.1.1 Entering and ending an agreement: Option delivery and relationship to the cropping cycle

6.2 General scheme requirements

6.2.1 General management requirements

6.2.2 Protecting historic features

6.2.3 Hedgerows

6.2.4 Grazing management

Table of Mid Tier multi-year options where average stocking densities apply

6.2.5 Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

6.2.6 Farming Rules for Water

6.2.7 Maintaining capital items

6.2.8 Heather and grass burning

6.3 Cross Compliance: requirements

6.4 Evidence: Record keeping and site visit requirements

6.4.1 When is evidence required?

Evidence to support your application

During the agreement period

After the agreement has ended

6.4.2 Consents and permissions

6.4.3 Organic certification

Fully organic

Organic Conversion payments

New conversion

6.4.4 Photographic evidence

Before work stage

During work stage

Claim stage

6.4.5 Photographic evidence quality

6.4.6 Clearly label photographs

6.5 Keeping farm records

6.5.1 Stocking records

6.5.2 Nutrients

6.5.3 Recommended fertiliser management system

1) Demonstrate the use of a recommended fertiliser management system

2) Seek advice to adopt a recommended fertiliser management system

3) Demonstrate exemption as a low intensity farmer

Note 1. Guidance on using recommended fertiliser management systems and advice offered

6.6 Soil sampling

6.6.1 Soil Sampling on Scheduled Monuments

6.7 Identifying species richness of grassland

6.8 Measuring Countryside Stewardship option areas and widths

6.8.1 The relationship between Countryside Stewardship buffer strip options and Cross Compliance: examples of where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a hedge (Diagram 1)

Countryside Stewardship arable options adjacent to a ditch (Diagram 2) – ditch measures 2m maximum width

Diagram 2a – ditch wider than 2m

Countryside Stewardship arable options adjacent to a ditch

Diagram 2b – ditch less than 2m

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a wall or fence

Diagram 3 – wall or fence where there is no cross compliance strip required

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a wood

Diagram 4 There are no cross compliance requirements where the boundary feature is a wood

Diagram 5: composite example of Countryside Stewardship options and cross compliance

6.8.2 The relationship between Countryside Stewardship options and Cross Compliance: examples of where to start measuring Countryside Stewardship options

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a ditch

Countryside Stewardship options adjacent to a watercourse

6.8.3 The relationship between whole parcel Countryside Stewardship options and Cross Compliance

6.9 Publicity: requirements

6.10 Metal detecting: requirements

6.11 Archaeological fieldwork: requirements

6.12 Farm Environment Record (FER) and Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER)

6.13 How RPA will use and share Agreement Holders’ information

6.14 Subsidy control rules

7 Agreement management: including how to claim, reductions and amending or ending your agreement

7.1 Submitting a claim

Claims process

7.1.1 Submitting claims for multi-year management options

7.1.2 Multi-year claims from land managers with multiple agreements

7.1.3 Capital items within multi-year agreements

7.1.4 Single claim water and air capital items

7.2 Evidence required to support your claim

7.2.1 Using contractors for multi-year management options and capital works

7.2.2 Invoices for actual costs

7.2.3 VAT for actual costs

7.2.4 Using your own or a farm employee’s labour for capital works

7.2.5 Using your own machinery for capital works

7.3 When will I get paid?

7.3.1 The impact of transfers on claims